1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to blood treatment equipment comprising a blood treatment device which is part of an extracorporeal blood circulatory system. The equipment includes actuators, a control unit for controlling the actuators, and a display and input unit including a touch screen connected to the control unit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various devices are known for the extracorporeal treatment of blood. In these devices blood is passed via a blood supply line from a patient to a blood treatment device and from there is passed back to the patient via a blood return line. The blood treatment device can, for example, be a haemodialyser or haemofilter, a blood oxygenator, a blood adsorber or a blood centrifuge. Such devices comprise actuators for controlling the blood treatment which are controlled by a control unit of the blood treatment equipment for the specific sequence of the blood treatment.
As a result of the numerous possible uses of this equipment and necessary safety measures, this equipment is relatively complex. For the operator there is increasingly the risk of the display and input interface being unclear. In view of the availability of new media, touch screens are increasingly being used for display and input units of such equipment. Thus, EP 0 904 788 A1 discloses the use of a touch screen to facilitate the operation of the equipment with the aid of a graphical image of the components of the haemodialysis equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,609,770 discloses an operator-machine interface with a touch screen for a haemodialysis device in which the focus is on the input of parameters and in which individual parameters are divided into groups. The input of parameters for a haemodialysis treatment using a touch screen is also the subject matter of EP 0 623 357 A1. The input and reproduction of specific information on an extracorporeal drip chamber in a haemodialysis treatment using a touch screen is the subject matter of U.S. Pat. No. 5,858,239.
In an extracorporeal blood treatment a plurality of temporally successive modes are passed through. Apart from the actual blood treatment mode, there is a preceding blood treatment preparation mode and a subsequent blood treatment after-preparation mode. In the blood treatment preparation mode the extracorporeal blood circulatory system is prepared for the blood treatment mode, by removing air or another medium from the extracorporeal circulatory system and introducing an isotonic filling fluid, generally sodium chloride solution, into the extracorporeal blood circulatory system. At the end of a blood treatment the blood located in the extracorporeal blood circulatory system is to be re-infused into the patient during a blood treatment after-preparation mode.